Financial Assistance to Ukraine Bill

Baroness Batters Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Wednesday 15th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Batters (CB) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is a great honour to address this House for the first time, and I thank the Minister and the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, for their kind words.

In March 2022 I had a request to speak with Mariia, director of the Ukrainian Agrarian Forum. I will always remember that first call. Mariia talked of farms, miles away from towns and villages, being individually targeted: poultry sheds and dairies bombed and destroyed; cows and calves left to burn alive; and fields planted with crops that were deliberated mined to destroy the farmers and the harvest. Russia stopped exporting nitrogen fertiliser three months before the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and your Lordships’ House should be under no illusions that the war in Ukraine is as much about food as it is about territory—and this at a time when England was paying farmers not to produce food.

As an ambassador of Farm Africa, I dedicate my maiden speech to the many farmers I have met across the world, and especially the 46,000 members of the National Farmers’ Union that I was privileged to lead. The NFU is an organisation led by farmers for farmers. Its great strength is the professional team of staff that I was fortunate to work alongside, and I am delighted that a few of the London team are in the Gallery today.

I am a fifth-generation tenant farmer on the Longford Estate in Wiltshire. We have a herd of Aberdeen Angus cross suckler cows and grow spring barley and British cut flowers, alongside a wedding barn and holiday cottages. Back in 2010 I became the NFU county chairman of Wiltshire, a role I very nearly did not take on due to my fear of public speaking. I hope the fact that I was elected as the first woman to lead the National Farmers’ Union in 118 years gives hope to others that fear of failure can be overcome.

Having four Prime Ministers—three in one year—was challenging, but for me 2020 was the standout year. In March we left our NFU headquarters in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, to work from home. My twins’ GCSEs were cancelled. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Trump planned to conclude a UK-US trade deal by August. There was one point, at the beginning of lockdown, when the Government thought we would run out of food. I remember a text from a Government Minister that read, “You can have as many people and as much money as you want, as long as we don’t run out of food”. For a few days, the reality of being seven meals from anarchy was very real. Farmers were key workers then, and I am enormously proud of the role the NFU played, working with government, to keep the country fed.

Brexit posed the ending of farming under the common agricultural policy. Farmers in England are nearly at the end of the transition into the environmental land management scheme. In this time, we have rewritten primary legislation for farming in England into the Agriculture Act 2020, raising the standards of environmental protection and animal welfare above those of the European Union. It was and remains an unacceptable contradiction to raise standards for farmers here and not for our trading partners.

Our history is littered with either embracement or abandonment of whether producing our own food matters. The Arab spring was the last time that government advisers and scientists gave serious thought to our role in delivering global food security. Post the financial crash of 2007 to 2009, the markets took off. Since then, the line given by officials is that the UK is a wealthy nation and can afford to import its food. The increases in farm taxes proposed in the Budget are a symptom of this all too often desk-based advice to Ministers. On this issue I urge the Government to listen to my successor, Tom Bradshaw, to pause and to consult with the industry. With so much change in the last six years, farming and our food security are at a major crossroads. Much will depend on the Government delivering their manifesto commitment to make food security national security.

I would like to finish with three points. First, the global population is set to rise to 10 billion by 2050. We will need to produce 50% more food with half the water and energy we have now. To achieve this, farmers will need access to the best science and innovation. Government must invest in and incentivise the optimisation of sustainable food production. The UK, with its maritime climate, should be producing much more of its own food. With targets for renewable energy, housing, nature, trees, water and air, it is wrong that we still have no target for food. Instead, we continue to rely on countries such as Spain and north African countries to produce so much of our salads, fruit and vegetables. It is unsustainable, both for them and for us.

Secondly, food and nature must become mutually inclusive. I am opposed to any form of nature bank. Instead, we must enable these vital environmental markets to come to fruition. Nature reserves are the jewels in the crown but they are a minuscule area, less than 8% of land in England. Over 70% of the country is farmed and can deliver food, nature and biodiversity net gain within a farmed landscape, at the scale that is needed.

Finally, I ran a catering business for 25 years. I am passionate about good food and cooking from scratch. Learning how to cook, for every child, should be as fundamental as maths and English in the school curriculum. The principles of a garden city should be applied to every urban area—orchards, allotments and beautiful green spaces for everyone, everywhere.

I conclude by thanking the amazing people who have helped me on this journey: the Defra Minister the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman; former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak; and my supporting Peers, the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington, and the noble Lord, Lord Soames. And enormous thanks to every single member of staff: Black Rod, the clerks, the Doorkeepers, the security staff and the catering staff, who most certainly do know how important food is to this House. Thank you—you have made me feel so welcome. Finally, my thanks to my family and those who work for me. Like all working mothers, the juggle is real and seldom mentioned. So, to my own mother and my two children: thank you so much for the sacrifices you have made on my behalf.